Eliot Spitzer (D) has hired Obama rapid-response maven Lis Smith to assist in his bid for New York City Comptroller, the New York Daily News reports.
“As Forbes noted in 2012, Smith isn’t just not afraid of pushing back on behalf of her candidate; she’s — yes, total reference to the 2006 Spitzer bio by Brooke Masters — known for, more often than not, spoiling for a fight.”
With Illinois state Rep. Mike Bost (R) challenging freshman Rep. Bill Enyart (D-IL) — which The Fix notes “is quite a winnable seat for Republicans” — it’s worth taking a look at a compilation video put together warning voters what might soon be coming to Washington, D.C.
Cory Booker (D), “who is heavily favored in New Jersey’s special election to replace Frank Lautenberg in the U.S. Senate has already scheduled a major speaking engagement in Iowa in August,” the Daily Beast reports.
It’s probably safe to assume Booker will be on the short list of possible Democratic vice presidential picks in 2016.
Update: The Des Moines Register says Booker has apparently canceled his Iowa speech.
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blamed his fellow Republicans for not being willing to use the resolution that funds the government to cripple the president’s health-care law, NBC News reports.
Said Cruz: “The problem right now is we don’t have Republicans willing to stand up and do this. We need 41 Republicans in the Senate or 218 Republicans in the House, to stand together, to join me, to join Mike Lee, to join Marco Rubio, all of whom have said, we will not vote for a single continuing resolution that funds even a penny of ObamaCare.”
He added: “The current continuing resolution, which funds the government, expires Sept. 30. So now is the window: if we’re going to defund Obamacare, now is the time we can actually get it done.”
While the balance of opinion toward abortion nationwide has remained largely steady over the past 20 years, Pew Research finds widening disparities in public attitudes on the issue across different regions of the country.
“Opposition to legal abortion is highest in parts of the South – including Texas, which recently passed sweeping new abortion restrictions. The South Central region is the only one in which opposition to legal abortion has significantly increased since the mid-1990s. By contrast, support for legal abortion remains highest in New England – and the gap between New England and South Central states has widened considerably over the past two decades.”
Former Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) has withdrawn from the Democratic primary for Arkansas governor, KNWA reports.
Halter said his reason for leaving the race is “to avoid a divisive primary” with former Rep. Mike Ross (D). The move effectively clears the field for Ross.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) “says he will sign into law a Republican-backed bill making sweeping changes to how and when citizens can vote even though he has not seen one of its key provisions,” WRAL reports.
When asked specifically about a provision ending the program encouraging high school students to register to vote in advance of their 18th birthdays, he said, “I don’t know enough, I’m sorry, I haven’t seen that part of the bill.”
The longer Anthony Weiner continues his New York City mayoral bid, the more heated exchanges with voters he’ll have.
Maureen Dowd: “Now, defining deviancy downward, Señor and Señora Danger are using the Clinton playbook. The difference is, there’s nothing in Weiner’s public life that is redeeming. In 12 years in Congress, he managed to get only one minor bill passed, on behalf of a donor, and he doesn’t work well with people. He knows how to be loud on cable and wave his Zorro sword in our faces.”
“Some sex scandals, like Mark Sanford’s, fall into the realm of flawed human nature, and some, like Weiner’s, fall into the realm of ‘Seriously, what is wrong with you?'”
Meanwhile, the New York Post reports Bill and Hillary Clinton “are angry with efforts” by Weiner “to compare his Internet sexcapades — and his wife Huma Abedin’s incredible forgiveness — to the Clintons’ notorious White House saga.”
“First of all, the kid’s going to grow up in Gracie Mansion. So I’m going to say, ‘Kid, don’t complain.'”
— Anthony Weiner, quoted by the Staten Island Advance, on what he’ll eventually tell his now 18-month old son about the sexting scandal that ended his congressional career.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) hit back at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) in the two Republicans’ ongoing spat over national security, the Washington Post reports.
Paul said Christie’s position “hurts GOP chances in national elections, and that spending priorities of critics like the governor and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) do more to harm national security.”
Said Paul: “They’re precisely the same people who are unwilling to cut the spending, and their ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme — give me all my Sandy money now.’ Those are the people who are bankrupting the government and not letting enough money be left over for national defense.”
A new Gallup Poll finds that if given the opportunity to vote on a law legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states, the slight majority of Americans, 52%, say they would cast their vote in favor, while 43% would vote against it.
Wall Street Journal: “Top White House officials are stepping up meetings with Senate Republicans in hopes of averting a deadline-driven clash over federal spending this fall, according to people familiar with the sessions. But the two sides remain far apart on basic questions of whether to raise tax revenue and how to rein in the cost of Medicare.”
Ralph Nader is looking for a billionaire to upend the two-party political system, Politico reports.
Said Nader: “Here’s what I think is going to happen. We will have the usual Green Party and libertarian parties in 2016. But there are some mega-billionaires who are seriously considering running third party. And the minute a mega-billionaire announces, like Ross Perot, they get enormous press, they get the polls and they are in play.”
He said it is “highly probable” that a billionaire will make a presidential play next cycle.
“It’s a little bit like going from the National League to the American League. It’s still politics. But the rules are a little bit different.”
— Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), quoted by the Boston Globe, on moving from the House to the Senate.
John Avlon notes Pope Francis “hasn’t been afraid to challenge the entrenched interests that have sullied his church’s perception. His style of reaching out is just what might save the Republican Party.”
“Much of the modern Republican Party is seems content preaching to a smaller and smaller choir. They seem, unfairly or not, more concerned with the head than the heart. Absolute faith in the power of tax cuts takes the place of alternative plans to alleviate poverty or expand the ranks of the middle class. This is not just a problem with communication; it is a problem with policy content that appeals outside the base.”
As an example, the AP notes Francis “is reaching out to gays, saying he won’t judge priests for their sexual orientation, in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returns from his first foreign trip.”
Said Francis: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Byron York: “It’s more likely that this is just a rocky time for a rejected and confused party. The conflicts inside the GOP today just don’t line up in the configuration of a classic civil war. There are multiple issues involved, and the lawmakers on various sides of various issues don’t lean the same way on each issue. Republicans who are opponents on one issue are allies on another. Looking at the Senate, for example, it’s unlikely that there will be a total civil war between Senate Faction A and Senate Faction B when some members of the opposing factions are united in Faction C, or Faction D, or so on. In other words, it may be that the Republican party is too divided to have a real civil war. Perhaps chaos would be a better description. We’ll know more later.”
The chief of staff to the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-NJ) told Cory Booker’s staff that his boss would retire and asked Booker to wait before jumping in the U.S. Senate race, the Newark Star Ledger reports.
“The answer was no. And on Dec. 20, Booker all but declared his candidacy for the seat… For that and many other perceived slights, Lautenberg’s family members have not forgiven Booker. They’ve made it clear on the campaign trail by supporting one of Booker’s rivals, Rep. Pallone (D-NJ), in the Aug. 13 Democratic primary, which was called after the senator’s death last month.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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